Ex-Brexit party MEP says there is no ‘given right’ to low food prices despite families struggling with cost of living
Families should go without cheese sandwiches if they cannot afford the ingredients, Ann Widdecombe has said.
The former Brexit party MEP said there was no “given right” for low food prices, despite being told families “cannot afford to feed their children” and were having to make huge sacrifices as the cost of living crisis deepens.
Continue reading...Five of party’s members make top 10, as researchers raise conflict of interest concerns
Brexit party members earn more from second jobs than any other group in the European parliament, according to transparency campaigners who are warning about potential conflicts of interest.
An annual study by Transparency International showed that Nigel Farage is no longer the best-paid British MEP by second job. Now in seventh place among the 227 MEPs with outside earnings, Farage earns about €360,000 (£319,000) a year from his media company, Thorn in the Side.
Continue reading...Widdecombe becomes first Brexit party MEP to speak in new European parliament
The former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe has likened the UK’s departure from the EU to the emancipation of slaves, as she became the first Brexit party MEP to speak in the new European parliament.
With her leader, Nigel Farage, on her right, Widdecombe said the recent negotiations among the EU’s heads of state and government over the leadership of the bloc’s institutions confirmed the need for Britain to leave.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including PMQs
Here is the key quote from Sturgeon’s opening statement.
There are some who would like to see a very early referendum, others want that choice to be later.
My job as first minister is to reach a judgment, not simply in my party’s interest but in the national interest.
Asked if she is willing to drop her demand for an independence referendum, Sturgeon says she is genuinely open-minded. If other parties can come forward with another mechanism that will protect Scotland’s interests in the event of Brexit, she will consider that, she says. She stresses that she is “open-minded”.
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